BTC BRIEF: Ensuring Financial Security for N.C. Workers

A Living Income Standard that addresses asset poverty among North Carolina’s working families

By Brian Kennedy II, Public Policy FellowJune 2017

Working families in North Carolina are the workhorses of our state’s economy. The promise of hard work should lead to financial stability and a path to the middle class for these families. But this promise is being broken for far too many working families, however, because of the growing prevalence of insufficient wages for hard work. Traditional wage measures, such as the minimum wage, fail to capture what a family truly needs to place food on the table. The Living Income Standard provides a more accurate picture of what families in North Carolina need to make ends meet.

Income on its own, however, is not enough to guarantee families a path to the middle class. Savings are critical in equipping families with the tools they need to weather unexpected hardships such as an illness, loss of job, or even something as routine as car repair.Additionally, savings are critical in providing families with the capital they need in order to pursue middle class investments such as homeownership, entrepreneurship, and education.